1 Peter 3:13 - 4:11
Undeserved Suffering

13.) And who will harm you if you are deeply committed to what is good?
14.) But even if you should suffer for righteousness, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear or be disturbed,
15.) but honor the Messiah as Lord in your hearts. Always be ready to give a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you.
16.) However, do this with gentleness and respect, keeping your conscience clear, so that when you are accused, those who denounce your Christian life will be put to shame.
17.) For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that should be God’s will, than for doing evil.

18.) For Christ also suffered for sins once for all,
the righteous for the unrighteous,
that He might bring you to God,
after being put to death in the fleshly realm
but made alive in the spiritual realm.

19.) In that state He also went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison
20.) who in the past were disobedient, when God patiently waited in the days of Noah while an ark was being prepared. In it a few—that is, eight people—were saved through water.
21.) Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God) through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
22.) Now that He has gone into heaven, He is at God’s right hand with angels, authorities, and powers subject to Him.

Chapter 4
Following Christ

1.) Therefore, since Christ suffered in the flesh, equip yourselves also with the same resolve—because the one who suffered in the flesh has finished with sin—
2.) in order to live the remaining time in the flesh, no longer for human desires, but for God’s will.
3.) For there has already been enough time spent in doing what the pagans choose to do: carrying on in unrestrained behavior, evil desires, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and lawless idolatry.
4.) So they are surprised that you don’t plunge with them into the same flood of wild living—and they slander you.
5.) They will give an account to the One who stands ready to judge the living and the dead.
6.) For this reason the gospel was also preached to those who are now dead, so that, although they might be judged by men in the fleshly realm, they might live by God in the spiritual realm.

End-Time Ethics

7.) Now the end of all things is near; therefore, be serious and disciplined for prayer.
8.) Above all, maintain an intense love for each other, since love covers a multitude of sins.
9.) Be hospitable to one another without complaining.
10.) Based on the gift each one has received, use it to serve others, as good managers of the varied grace of God.
11.) If anyone speaks, it should be as one who speaks God’s words; if anyone serves, it should be from the strength God provides, so that God may be glorified through Jesus Christ in everything. To Him belong the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen.




Holman Christian Standard Bible
(HCSB) Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville Tennessee. All rights reserved.

1 Peter 2:11-3:12

A Call to Good Works

11.) Dear friends, I urge you as strangers and temporary residents to abstain from fleshly desires that war against you.
12.) Conduct yourselves honorably among the Gentiles, so that in a case where they speak against you as those who do what is evil, they will, by observing your good works, glorify God on the day of visitation.

13.) Submit to every human authority because of the Lord, whether to the Emperor as the supreme authority
14.) or to governors as those sent out by him to punish those who do what is evil and to praise those who do what is good.
15.) For it is God’s will that you silence the ignorance of foolish people by doing good.
16.) As God’s slaves, live as free people, but don’t use your freedom as a way to conceal evil.
17.) Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the Emperor.

Submission of Slaves to Masters

18.) Household slaves, submit with all fear to your masters, not only to the good and gentle but also to the cruel.
19.) For it brings favor if, mindful of God’s will, someone endures grief from suffering unjustly.
20.) For what credit is there if you sin and are punished, and you endure it? But when you do what is good and suffer, if you endure it, this brings favor with God.

1 Peter 1:22-2:10

22.) By obedience to the truth, having purified yourselves for sincere love of the brothers, love one another earnestly from a pure heart,
23.) since you have been born again—not of perishable seed but of imperishable—through the living and enduring word of God.
24.) For
    All flesh is like grass,
    and all its glory like a flower of the grass.
    The grass withers, and the flower falls,
25.) but the word of the Lord endures forever.
And this is the word that was preached as the gospel to you.

The Living Stone and a Holy People
Chapter 2

1.) So rid yourselves of all malice, all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and all slander.
2.) Like newborn infants, desire the pure spiritual milk, so that you may grow by it for your salvation,
3.) since you have tasted that the Lord is good.
4.) Coming to Him, a living stone—rejected by men but chosen and valuable to God—
5.) you yourselves, as living stones, are being built into a spiritual house for a holy priesthood to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.
6.) For it is contained in Scripture:
    Look! I lay a stone in Zion,
    a chosen and honored cornerstone,
    and the one who believes in Him
    will never be put to shame!
7.) So honor will come to you who believe, but for the unbelieving,
    The stone that the builders rejected--
    this One has become the cornerstone,
8.) and
    A stone to stumble over,
    and a rock to trip over.
They stumble because they disobey the message; they were destined for this.
9.) But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood,
a holy nation, a people for His possession,
so that you may proclaim the praises
of the One who called you out of darkness
into His marvelous light.
10.) Once you were not a people,
but now you are God’s people;
you had not received mercy,
but now you have received mercy.





Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville Tennessee. All rights reserved.

1 Peter 1:13-21

A Call to Holy Living

13.) Therefore, with your minds ready for action, be serious and set your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
14.) As obedient children, do not be conformed to the desires of your former ignorance.
15.) But as the One who called you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct;
16.) for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy.

17.) And if you address as Father the One who judges impartially based on each one’s work, you are to conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your temporary residence.
18.) For you know that you were redeemed from your empty way of life inherited from the fathers, not with perishable things like silver or gold,
19.) but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.
20.) He was chosen before the foundation of the world but was revealed at the end of the times for you
21.) who through Him are believers in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.



Holman Christian Standard Bible
(HCSB) Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville Tennessee. All rights reserved.